Many of Farid Fata’s former patients marked the occasion by filing lawsuits against the doctor in Oakland County Circuit Court.

As of Thursday, 20 lawsuits had been filed against Fata this week. The timing was not symbolic as much as it was a technicality, attorneys said.

Notices of intent to file lawsuits were issued to Fata, Crittenton Medical Center and others 182 days ago. Legally, this week was the proper time to file the suits.

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“The thread running through these cases, obviously, is that these are people who either did not have cancer and were treated with chemotherapy for no reason, or they were people provided with chemotherapy that no reasonable person would believe was going to be effective, causing all kinds of suffering … they didn’t need to have,” said Jules Olsman, president of Olsman, Mueller, Wallace & MacKenzie.

In that regard, the lawsuits accuse Fata of the same misconduct that the indictment did. Fata has been imprisoned since raids were conducted on his home and office on Aug. 6, 2013, and awaits a trial this fall.

Olsman’s law firm filed 11 of the 20 lawsuits against Fata.

“We looked at a tremendous number of (cases) and some people, we just didn’t think we could help in any meaningful way,” Olsman said. “We have no interest in hurting people twice, so if we couldn’t help them, we told them we couldn’t help them.”

In Michigan, there is generally a cap of $440,000 on awards in medical malpractice cases, though that figure can vary depending on certain economic components, Olsman said.

“I think the defendants were expecting the filing,” he said. “We’ve had ongoing discussions with the insurance carriers involved and we hope that all of the cases can be put into a system whereby they can be adjudicated and resolved for people without the need to go through the entire legal process.”

As for the criminal trial, Olsman does not expect Fata to get off lightly.

“The indictment of Dr. Fata speaks for itself,” he said. “My expectation is he has a fine criminal defense lawyer who’s trying to cut the best plea agreement he can, because I don’t expect to see Dr. Fata out on the street anytime soon.”

Fata faces 19 counts of health care fraud, two counts of money laundering and one count each of conspiracy to pay and receive kickbacks and unlawful procurement of naturalization. The trial, which had been scheduled to begin next week, was pushed back to October during a hearing in June.